How to deal with the National Visa Center?

If the beneficiary of a case for immigrant visa is outside the United States, the case is usually processed by the National Visa Center (NVC), branch of Department of State.

Once the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) approves your immigrant visa petition (Form I-130, Form I-140,etc.) USCIS forwards your petition to the National Visa Center (NVC) in Portsmouth, NH for immigrant visa pre-processing at the correct time. Immediate relative categories do not have yearly numerical limits. However, family preference and employment based immigrant categories have numerical limits each year; therefore, lengthy wait times are involved for processing to begin, as explained below.

What happens at the NVC and how to proceed?

If your Priority Date meets the most recent Cut-off Date, or is likely to become current soon, the NVC will:

Invoice you for your visa application fees – you will need to pay for this application.

Hold your visa petition until an interview can be scheduled with a consular officer at a U.S. Embassy or Consulate.

If your Priority Date DOES NOT meet the most recent Cut-off Date, the NVC will notify you and hold your petition until your Priority Date meets the most recent Cut-off Date or is likely to become current soon. As your Priority Date gets closer to the Cut-off Date, NVC will contact you to start processing. The Department of State updates the Cut-off Dates on a monthly basis in the Visa Bulletin.

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Shah Peerally is a Bay Area Immigration Lawyer offering immigration legal services in the San Francisco Bay area. As an Experienced immigration attorney in the Bay Area, his law firm situated in Fremont-Newark focuses on immigration laws with an emphasis on employment based immigration H1B visa, L1A, L1B visas, PERM Labor Certification. His law firm in Newark, California also handles Family based immigration petitions and VAWA self-petitioner petitions. H1B Attorney USA Shah Peerally provides US Visa services to clients in Northern California, Silicon Valley and Southern California including: San Jose, Fremont, San Francisco, San Rafael, San Mateo, Millbrae, San Bruno, South San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Hayward, Pleasanton, Redwood City, Milpitas, Saratoga, Livermore, Richmond, Santa Clara, Palo Alto, Dublin California, Mountain View California, Mt. View California, Silicon Valley, South Bay, Campbell, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Sunnyvale California, Los Angeles California, San Diego California and Washington DC.
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